Hey guys, I recently started a design, it's my first in design in year or so! Would like some seriously feedback and constructive criticism. It's still far from being complete. I've uploaded it here:http://undergroundhiphop.me/

Thanks for the feedback guys! I will definitely keep your suggestions in mind. I'll try adding more color for sure. It's not coded in yet, but there's also going to be an image slider about the first post below the navigation bar. I will also add a cool dark foot with top posts and cool things.

Finally updated. I've been working a lot at my shitty job and been super busy, I haven't had much time to work on the design. So I started integrating wordpress, added more color, and am working on getting a slider going right now. I think it's looking pretty good! The color advice was great, I think the added red/blue make it look way better!

It's a clean look but it does seem a bit empty still... The tag links need some formatting, the comments sidebar needs fixed, and I'm not crazy about the bullets, sidebar headings background, or the :hover effect on the main navigation...

Overall, it's not a bad design but I wouldn't say it's great either... If you're going to stick with that logo, you may want to look into embedding a font-face that compliments it, and use that for other headings...

i'm probably going to come off as a dick, but ... c'est la vie. it's going to get you thinking again.

i clicked the link and instantly closed it because i thought it loaded a spam/parked domain page. i checked the post dates and realized it wasn't old, these were recent posts and that's actually what the design (or lack-there-of) looks like. i went back, and i'm kinda upset.

i have 2 big beefs:

1. you asked for serious feedback and got everything but. you got lip service, which is useless.

clean, simple, professional... are you guys high? not even taking into account name culture shock'd, how do any of those words associate with hip-hop?

2. honestly, i'd say you have a bad design, but you don't really have one here. you have a wordpress theme.

you got a name like culture shock'd, and you have the most culture-less theme ever. i grew up with rap/hip-hop in the 90's, i'm sure real hip-hop hasn't changed, but even the main stream stuff was about the streets. it was rough, it was tough, it was in your face, it was the opposite of simple, clean & professional.

you're on the right track with the grafitti, but ditch the shadows, ditch the stupid plastic gradients and bevels, ditch brush script. get it rough, get it dirty, get it in my face.

check out some hip hop album covers and translate that to a usable UI:

Ok, I've been thinking about it, I think you are seeing the correct design. I just realized the header on this one has a graffitish font as well. I thought you were seeing the old design which has a completely graffitied out logo.

I'm not planning on relaunching my underground hiphop blog, or starting a world culture blog, I only develop designs on the domain.

Yeah, it's simple and glossy, which is the style I like. I was trying to design something similar to the designs you see on the online magazine blogs popular today I was inspired by the design below, which I quite like: